• Out of Bounds

Picking Tiger is no gamble for Pavin

Tiger Woods will have the chance to show the world that he is a team player © Getty Images

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Corey Pavin did what everyone expected him to do by handing Tiger Woods a Ryder Cup wildcard, but not only was it the obvious move it was also the correct move for his team.

Much has been made about Woods' form, or lack of it for much of the year, and there were some who felt he should not have been selected for the eagerly-anticipated spectacular with Europe at Celtic Manor in October.

Former European Tour winner and Open Championship runner-up Peter Oosterhuis has been vocal in his criticism of Woods' form and believes he will have a negative impact on the USA team. But for all the dissenters, there are those who believe it would be folly to leave him out.

Two-time major winner Greg Norman sums it up perfectly. "You couldn't leave the world No. 1 out of your team," Norman said. "His ability with the 14 clubs in his bag speaks for itself, so I think it's a logical choice for Corey."

And Norman is exactly right, you cannot possibly leave the world No. 1 out of the team. His form might not be that of a world No. 1, and come October 1 he may no longer be at the top of the tree, but he is still playing good golf and he has a further three weeks to hone his form.

Ask any player on the Europe team who they would rather face out of Tiger Wood and Charley Hoffman, and the answer would be Hoffman. No disrespect to Hoffman - the winner of the Deutsche Bank Championship and an outside shout for a place on the team prior to Pavin's announcement - but he does not carry the same air of authority as Woods.

Woods looks far more focused on his golf than he did a couple of months ago, he has now started work on a full-time basis with swing coach Sean Foley - one of the most astute judges in the game despite his relatively tender years - and the green shoots of recovery are there to see.

The ball is being struck far more crisply than when he was at his lowest ebb at the Bridgestone Invitational and with that comes confidence. Foley is working on revamping Woods' swing and that will take time, but the blueprint is in place and I can envisage further improvement between now and the tournament.

Woods has gone through a divorce and that cannot have been easy for him or his family, but with that now consigned to the history books he can focus on his golf and he has looked far more in tune with his game in recent weeks. Putting remains an issue but it could be that his struggles on the greens are connected to the all round malaise and his deadly nature on the short stuff will return when he hits form. You get the impression that if it really mattered at the Ryder Cup, if it really mattered, when stood over a six-footer he would make it.

A concern many have had is Woods' record in Ryder Cups. He has picked up just 11 points from a possible 25 and was absent when the US wrestled the trophy back in Valhalla two years ago. He has often been accused of being an individual rather than a team player, preferring to keep himself at arm's length from his team-mates, but Out of Bounds gets the impression that the incidents of the past year have prompted a change.

And there would be no better way for Woods to announce that the second part of his career is ready to begin by leading USA to victory at Celtic Manor.

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